Wheatley’s Poems, Archibald Bell and the Dillys: a Book Historical revaluation of the Wheatleyan moment

David Waldstreicher characterised the Wheatleyan moment as one in which the publication of personality acquired political significance in the history of Transatlantic slavery and American liberty. This article adduces some book historical evidence to that position. Spurred by close study of a particular copy of Wheatley’s Poems, and making close reference to Wheatley’s poems and letters, the article offers a fuller account of the literary, religious and professional life of her publisher, Archibald Bell. It also speculates that the larger firm of E. and C. Dilly, with its many salient American connections, may have been a route to Bell for Wheatley and her agents in London. The article considers the Dillys’ attitudes to American affairs and publications relating to Transatlantic slavery. It closes with a reassessment of the publication of Wheatley’s Poems as a complex, plural moment in rendering creative, religious and political subjectivity saleable in print, simultaneously setting the print marketplace to work for creative, religious and political ends.